Do You Remember Your First Music Purchase?
Lisa (my better half) and I, were doing some vinyl listening this weekend. She posed an interesting question. What is the first record in your collection that you had ever purchased?
Since my music aquisitions started in about 1965, needless to say, my first music purchase was a record. For some of the younger folks on this site, their first music purchase may have been a CD.
For me it was Gary Lewis and the Playboys, "Everybody Loves A Clown". It took me about 2 hours to figure out since I have, I would guess, about 2500 albums. I still have the album and it still plays pretty well considering it's probably been tracked by about 20 different stylii. I had A Webcor Stereo that my parents had purchased me for my 6th birthday. It had a 7" BSR turntable and an AM/FM "radio" built in, with 2 "detachable" speakers.
What is the first piece of recorded music you ever purchased and do you still own it?
Since my music aquisitions started in about 1965, needless to say, my first music purchase was a record. For some of the younger folks on this site, their first music purchase may have been a CD.
For me it was Gary Lewis and the Playboys, "Everybody Loves A Clown". It took me about 2 hours to figure out since I have, I would guess, about 2500 albums. I still have the album and it still plays pretty well considering it's probably been tracked by about 20 different stylii. I had A Webcor Stereo that my parents had purchased me for my 6th birthday. It had a 7" BSR turntable and an AM/FM "radio" built in, with 2 "detachable" speakers.
What is the first piece of recorded music you ever purchased and do you still own it?
60 responses Add your response
I wish I could say something cool like the Beatles or Stones (I did buy a 45 of 'Angie' quite early, as I recall), but to the best of memory, my first music purchase was an album by the Partridge Family, probably because I had seen the television show and had a crush on Susan Dey. Plus, I saw how all the girls went crazy over David Cassidy. Later, I bought 'Frampton Comes Alive' because I saw how all the girls went crazy over Peter Frampton. The first time I remember being utterly captivated by the music itself was Blue Oyster Cult's 'Don't Fear the Reaper', which I played over and over and over and still love to this day. |
The first album I bought with my own money was Santana III in 1971. Still have the original wax, which is surprisingly playable but would only rate a solid VG by current used record industry standards. This was the record from which I learned to play hand drums, and a better tutorial doesn't exist to this day. The band had the opportunity to really stretch out and develop that thick, juicy ensemble sound that the band had back then. I had seen them a year and a half earlier and this record had that "sound", which the first record and Abraxas, somehow, missed. |
Oh - and Seandtaylor99 (way back up in response 2) - of course this fellow (sort-of) Brit remembers the Wombles ... I womble free all the time, and am pretty common... For s... and giggles, you can relive your past with the womble title clip. |
Technically, I think it was some UK top of the pops collections (covers of current hits by some "house" band) - similar to "Now That's What I Call Pop" nowadays, except for not the real artists. Can't remember what the series was called; but they always had titillating covers with scantily clad women on them. I'd be curious to hear if any Brits remember the series! The first real record (and can't remember if it was a purchase or requested gift) was the 3-lp "Wings Over America" live Wings discs (back in 8th grade - 76/77). As cheesy as they might strike some people, I still like 'em. |
My first LP was Queen "A Night At The Opera." I saved my money and bought it at K-Mart. I made the mistake of leaving it laying around in my room and my mother read the lyrics. She made me get rid of it. Several years later I bought a new copy of it in Germany while we were visiting my grandparents (her parents). By then I had enough LPs that she did not notice it. |
It was either the Supreme's "Where Did Our Love Go" or the first Manfred Mann album, the one with "Doo Wah Diddy". The Supreme's record is still one of my favorite albums and get consistent play. Don't know what happened to the Manfred Mann disc, but it proved very influential in that it introduced me to a number of classic blues tunes. I'd never heard "Smokestack Lightning" before, nor did I even know who Muddy Waters was at the time. Darrylhifi, I believe it was the Lemonpipers who did "Green Tambourine". |
"Out of our Heads", Rolling Stones. When I took it to my cousin, I had to return it for the mono Lp. Her system was a tube Harmon Kardon mono receiver with Garrard tt and EV speaker. Mono, Stereo, I didn't know the difference. In '67 I inherited that system and I was in heaven. Then it became my first guitar amp. Those tubes gave me a nice over-driven sound not unlike Cream. I shoulda held on to it. |
Geez The Platters "Great Pretender" was an album I found in the refuse closet near the incinerator chute in my apartment building, years and years ago, along with some Duke Ellington albums. Probably played The Platters a hundred times. Knew just about all the words to the songs. I am dating myself here. |
Hello Goodbye by the Beatles. I think I was 5 or 6 and had saved up my allowance to buy the 45. My sister who was older was able to purchase Beatles and Monkees records by the score, but I had none. My parents gave me one of the old record players in-a-box and I watched as the yellow and orange label spun round and round while I listened to "Hello Goodbye" and "I am the Walrus". Must have played it 500 times or more, but alas, condition problems sent it to an early grave. But hey ...I still remember it...and that's what counts. |
I vaguely remember it being a 45 of Roy Orbison's "Pretty Woman". Even way back then, that falsetto voice was really something. I think that I played that thing so many times that I wore it out! I bought a "Best Of" a month or two ago and surprisingly I still remembered most every word of that song. It was like I reverted back to my early teen years...I think I'll go on home it's late, they'll be tomorrow night, but wait..what do I see..is she walking back to me!!! |
Try as I might, can't seem to recall when I first used money to get a record. Do hand-me-downs count? If so My older sister gave me "The Sound of Jazz" that she got from the Columbia record club and one of my other sisters gave me "Highway 61 Revisited", both for the same reason: they declared these albums as "unlistenable". Neither knew a thing about music. Their loss was my gain. Do 45s count? I remember a Rolling Stones single where the B side was either "Under Assistant West Coast Promotion Man" or was it the instrumental "2120 South Michigan Avenue"? So many records, so little time. Screw the audiophile thing, give me the music... |
Beatles; Rubber Soul The next one I remember is Led Zeppelin II. I am sure there was probably some inbetween these, but this is the one I remember. I remember purchasing Paul Revere and the Raiders with Cherokee People, but don't remember if it was before or after Led Zeppelin II. I don't have any of these titles now and I don't know what ever happened to them. |
I purchased 3 LP's in the fall of 1969 (I was 12). Jimi Hendrix- Are You Experienced? Jefferson Airplane- Surrealistic Pillow Country Joe and the Fish- Greatest Hits Still have them all but, the Hendrix and Airplane albums have been "replaced" by the DCC reissues. Still waiting for an 180g. Country Joe reissue...... |
Well up to this point I love most everybody's first purchase. Most all of those were favs. of mine.--While my older siblings bought records that we all listened to; "my" first record purchase was the 78 of Les Paul/Mary Ford; "The World Is Waiting For the Sunrise"---This was played on one of those wind-up jobs. I think there must have been 5/8 lbs. weight on the needle. After enough spins I think you could hear the B side without flipping the record.( Backwards,of course.) |
Grand Funk Railroad "Mark, Don and Mel." Still have it after 30 some years. It is still the one album my brother and I talk about the most of. I remember it was purchased with paper route money back then. My kids get a bang out of it when I play it at a loud volume. Rock and Roll was quite different back then. It was much, much better back then than it is today. |
